Since the late 1970s, one of my favorite creative pastimes has been making time-lapse movies. While the technique is used to accelerate the movement of all sorts of things, my main fascination was with filming people and observing the sped-up patterns of interaction that occur in crowded situations. Choosing the right location for a time-lapse was key, and it occurred to me that shopping malls, with the social behavior that takes place there, would make fantastic subject matter. Accordingly, in 1989, I began shooting my mall movie with virtually no budget, a condition of my status as a "starving artist." Out of necessity, the project required guerrilla filmmaking tactics.

Almost immediately, I encountered the main obstacle to creating my movie: the threat of being kicked out of the mall by security guards for photographing without authorization. The challenge was to capture at least a few time-lapse shots before being discovered, as a mall cop would eventually notice and escort me out of the building. For that reason, I regularly moved from one mall to another throughout the Los Angeles area. Since I shot the movie in 16mm format with my Bolex camera—which was of considerable size and impossible to hide, there was no way to be covert about what I was doing. I would choose a shooting angle, set up my tripod and camera, and try to act natural while filming at 2 frames per second. The camera was visibly in plain sight, but as long as I looked in a different direction, the general public (unlike security) would not take notice. A beneficial side effect of being forced to film at different malls was the opportunity for architectural variety. The locations included the Glendale Galleria, Westside Pavilion, Sherman Oaks Galleria, South Bay Mall, and Fox Hills Mall. After a while, my initial enthusiasm for the project waned. I grew weary of the shooting hassles and became concerned about the considerable post-production costs required to finish the movie. Ultimately, I abandoned the project, and the film sat in storage like a time capsule waiting for some future resurrection.

Many years later, digital filmmaking became a reality. In 2007, I decided to revive Mall Mania and finish it digitally using the shots I had available. I transferred the film footage to the DV format, which made editing and post-production much easier and more affordable than previous analog methods. Although I barely had enough material to complete the movie, once I synced the shots to a "period" electronic soundtrack by Bjorn Lynne, it turned out great. After I released it on Vimeo.com, Mall Mania received significant attention. People responded to the film in ways I never expected when I first shot it. For modern viewers, it served as a nostalgic window into days gone by. The charm of the movie lay not so much in the time-lapse technique, but rather in the display of former fashions, hairstyles, and fads, now immortalized for all to enjoy.